Releasing Tension through Meditation

Swami Chetanananda

The core of spiritual practice is to release tension and allow creative energy to flow. Creative energy, also called vital force, is the very essence of life. Tension is anything that obstructs the flow of energy. It exists in many forms: physical, emotional and mental.

We use a series of steps to release tension through meditation. The steps involve paying attention to the breath, the chakras, the flow of energy and the presence of grace.

Breath

The breath is not only nourishment on a physiological level, it is also creative energy that nourishes us spiritually. When you breathe, feel that you are consciously drawing in the energy and feeding yourself deeply. Breathe in naturally, drawing your breath through the nose and down into the abdomen. Feel the breath, observing it as it reaches its natural fullness and comes to a stop. Relax and pause for a moment in this stillpoint. Next, as you exhale, feel the breath begin to rise. Guide it upward with your attention as it rises up the spine and passes out beyond the top of the head. As it does, relax, pause at the end of the exhalation and feel for the stillpoint again.

The function of this breathing exercise is to get you to start feeling. It is amazing how compact and compressed we are, and how little we feel. When we are tense and exhausted we are a little bit like a bale of cotton, and our capacity to feel is minuscule. We have to take some time to tune within and reestablish ourselves as feeling people.

Chakras

The next step in meditation practice is to become aware of our chakras, each of which is a subtle but highly potent center of energy in the body. Although these are not exactly physical, we experience their energy in palpable ways. For example, a powerful emotional experience may cause your throat to constrict—you have a lump in your throat. It is our experience of the energy of the chakras that determines our state of mind.

There are three primary energy channels in the subtle body. The first is called the sushumna and is located in the spinal cord. On either side of the sushumna are two other primary channels, the ida and the pingala. These crisscross back and forth, and their points of intersection are the seven major chakras. Those seven chakras are located at the base of the spine, at the base of the sex organ, in the abdomen about two fingers beneath the navel, at heart level in the center of the chest, in the throat, above and between the eyes, and at the top of the head. When we sit in meditation, we use the breath to bring our attention to each of these centers in turn, and our very attention causes them to open. Establishing openness is the key to working with the chakras.

Flow

While each of the chakras is important in the process of refining our awareness, even more important is the flow of energy between them. This flow is actually a circuit that goes down the front of our body, through the chakras, and then rises up the spinal column, continuing through the top of the head. We do not create this circuit—it already exists. We simply work to cultivate our awareness of it as we breathe in and out. This energy is called kundalini, the expression of the pulsation of life itself in us. As we become aware of this flow, we gradually withdraw the focus of our attention from the physical world and take it inside ourselves.

Presence

When we become still, we begin to notice a kind of presence. If we pay attention to it, we discover its many qualities and the many levels of fluctuation within it. Moreover, as we stabilize our individual awareness within that field, something about it opens up in every direction. As our hearts open and we begin to experience the joy implicit within the flow of energy, our awareness of our connection to the whole intensifies. We learn to sustain this perception of connectedness even as we observe various differentiated events operating in the field of our awareness.

Having awakened our creative energy and cultivated its flow, we recognize our bodies, minds and every other aspect of ourselves as pure creative energy. Ultimately we discover the same to be true of everything and we see our fundamental unity in life itself.

Swami Chetanananda will be joining Master Charles Cannon and Swami Shankarananda for The 3 Gurus series of programs on September 18-24 at the Nityananda Institute in NE Portland. Visit www.the3gurus.com or call 503-236-0475.